Game Over
by Utotsuki
Summary: At the Valley of the End, Sasuke decides to cut all ties with his former village, killing his best friend for good. Exhaling his last breath, Naruto realises he has to come to terms with death... so why is there a scoreboard, and what does all that floating text do?
1. Game Over?

Chapter One: "Game Over"

Disclaimer: _Idea taken from Chibi-Reaper, who, I believe, started this mess._

It felt really funny, at first, like a soft tingling on his chest.

At first, that is. When the blade of electricity began to pierce him, though... He felt the edge of the Chidori pulsing in rhythm with his own heart as the blade drew near it.

Two heartbeats was all it took, in essence, only two. The lightning pierced his ribcage, charred his chest and ribs, and more than scratched his heart.

Sasuke withdrew his arm.

With every heartbeat, his core tore up to shreds. Not even the Kyūbi, no matter how hard it would have tried, not even it would have managed to patch him up. What it _did_do was earn him a few more moments of life.

He breathed in, breathed out. Even that was pretty hard, now that half his lungs were charred.

He could taste the char deep in his throat.

_'One more breath, I'm still alive, one more...' _he kept telling himself, _'just one more, I can make it.'_

But the breaths became more and more shallow.

_'Still alive, I'm still alive... I'm still alive... still alive... not dead yet, not dead... not...'_

He thus exhaled, and his body lay motionless on the muddy soil.

He had died before growing up, before seeing the world, before becoming Hokage. That didn't really matter. What mattered was that he could still _think._

Dead.

Dead but thinking? Sure, but still dead.

He didn't really see anything; not that he saw black, but it was like he never even _had_ eyes!

_'Huh, this must be what blind people feel like... or dead people.'_

He could only hear himself think, and it wasn't really 'hearing' it. He felt nothing else, though; no scents, no warmth or cold, he heard no sounds, he saw nothing, felt not a single part of his body.

_'What do you feel when you're sleeping a dreamless sleep?'_he heard himself ask that. Or think it. Or something like that.

Yeah, that's what dead people ought to feel like.  
Something was off, though. He knew that some light ought to appear just about now and he should stand on trial in front of some stellar judge or demons and gods, or so had said the shintō priests... the stories weren't really coherent, though every one had the demons, and a hell.

He shuddered.

Hell?

Was he really sent to a hell? This was an odd hell, then, to be sure. Nothing around him.

Nothing he could feel, no heat, or stench of rotting madmen.

_'Hey, whoever's listening, I wanna live! I haven't done anything wrong! I can prove it!'_

Nobody was listening.

_'Damn you all! I wanna live, I wanna continue with-'_ _***WHOOOSH***_

He felt a breeze of wind, and, slowly, his limbs started working again.

He couldn't really flex his fingers or his arm or fancy anything like that, but he at least knew the limbs were still there.

He also felt his eyes again. Being closed, though, meant that they couldn't really tell him much about where he was.

He tried opening them, and he did open them.

A flash of white almost blinded him at first, but his eyes adjusted.

They first fell upon some sort of list in front of him, floating in mid-air. The thing was, there was no paper.

Around him was also white, and some faint _whoosh_ing was heard... somewhere?

He laid his eyes upon the list.

"What?..."

**GAME OVER**

**'Life Summary - Scoreboard'**

**...**

Actually, below that lay some sort of list, various things stacked one after another. That mattered none, as Naruto just stared at the first two words.

"Game... over," he muttered. He felt as if someone had struck him in the gut and whisked away all the breath he had... or as if he had died.

"Game _over_? What_ game_?"

He sighed. Yup, he _was_in hell, and all his life, too.

After having closed his eyes and shaken his head hard, as if he could somehow have ridden himself of the nasty thoughts, he looked back at the list. It was pretty long, and somehow faded away at the bottom. Not even reading it, he pressed his fingers against the letters and pulled up and down.

He scrolled down the text, slowly at first, then quickly, and after a while, his fingers flickered across the invisible surface.

"Woah. What a list," he said to no one in particular.

He went back to the top and began to read it, slowly.

**GAME OVER**

**'Life Summary - Scoreboard'**

**Character: **_**Naruto**_** (**_**Classic**_**)**

**(Life Stats)**

**Survived **_**"Fourteen"years**_** ... +140 points**

**Had "**_**zero**_**" parent(s) ... +200 points**

**Had "**_**zero**_**" child(ren) ... -100 points**

**(Ninja Stats)**

**Learned "**_**four**_**" technique(s) ... +40 points**

**Learned "**_**Summoning**_**" ... +100 points**

**Learned "**_**Rasengan**_**" ... +250 points**

**Learned "**_**Shadow Clone**_**" ... +50 points**

**Learned "**_**Henge**_**" ... +5 points**

**Used demon chakra "**_**four**_**" times ... -40 points**

**Died in battle ... -200 points**

**Enemy survived ... -250 points**

**Lost precious person "**_**Sarutobi Hiruzen**_**" during "**_**Suna/Oto Invasion**_**" ... -150 points**

**Lost precious person "**_**Uchiha Sasuke**_**" during "**_**Sasuke's Escape**_**" ... -75 points**

**Defeated "**_**Mizuki**_**" ... +10 points**

**Defeated "**_**Inuzuka Kiba**_**" ... +25 points**

**Defeated "**_**Gaara of the Sand**_**" ... +250 points**

**Lost to "**_**Orochimaru**_**" ... -50 points**

**Lost to "**_**Uchiha Sasuke**_**" ... -250 points**

**(Lifestyle)**

**Gardener ... +50 points**

**Broke nindo ... -1000 points (twice)**

**Kissed "**_**one**_**" time(s) ... +10 points**

**Kissed men "**_**once**_**" ... N/A**

**Kissed women "**_**never**_**" ... N/A**

**Is virgin ... -250 points**

**...**

"What?..."

At first, he felt like he was being played with. Looking over his shoulder only gave him that white and featureless landscape. Definitely not some weird sort of prank. Everything about this bugged him, but this last block of text bugged him bad. "Broke nindo? When!" he shouted. Then it came to him.

"Oh..."

It was bringing Sasuke back and becoming Hokage, that's what he promised and failed to do.

The list went on for quite some time, but those were the only things that scored.

This was definitely hell, to judge him for Sasuke's actions. "Hey, hell! I'm not my best friend's keeper!"

It won him nothing.

He only skimmed through the remainder of the list, which went approximately like "had diarrhea X times, vomited Y times, drank Z sorts of milk". Every single thing he had ever done or had been done unto him was apparently logged, every single one, down to how many times he went to the toilet.

He shuddered.

Life is, or at least was, life. It _had _been pretty fun to live, he admitted, but he wanted more out of that life.

He scrolled down to a section that read "Tally", which he figured was something like a fancy way to say "Result".

He began reading it...

**...**

**(Tally)**

**Total Score ... -990 points**

**Pathetic!**

**Moral Compass ... Chaotic Good, Innocent**

**Character ... Caring, Charming, Obnoxious**

**(Extras)**

**Sexuality ... Straight, maybe? (Kissed only men, attracted to women)**

**...**

"Hey! That was an accident!"

**...**

**Spirit ... Unbroken**

**Loyalty ... Very loyal**

**Congratulations!**

**You have -990 points:**

**- Unlocked "**_**Sad Naruto**_**" (have a negative score)**

**- Unlocked "**_**Pathetic Naruto**_**" (have a score less than -500 points)**

**Congratulations!**

**You're suspiciously straight:**

**- Unlocked "**_**Gay Naruto**_**"**

**...**

"I already told you it was an accident! Stop picking on me for that, you stupid demonic list!"

**...**

**Congratulations!**

**You missed a bad milestone by 10 points:**

**- Unlocked "**_**Lucky Naruto**_**" (miss a bad milestone by 10 points)**

**Congratulations!**

**You're good:**

**- Unlocked "**_**Goody Naruto**_**" (be good)**

**Congratulations!**

**You're oblivious to girls:**

**- Unlocked "**_**Idiot Naruto**_**" (be oblivious to something obvious)**

**...**

"Hey, what's that for! It takes a blind idiot to not notice that there are girls in the world! You cheater!"  
The list gave him no mind.

**...**

**Congratulations!**

**You learned "**_**Summoning**_**" (Toad variety) and "**_**Rasengan**_**" (Classic):**

**- Unlocked "**_**Namikaze Naruto**_**" (follow in the footsteps of legends)**

**...**

"First good thing you said about me... I'm still mad, though!"

**...**

**Congratulations!**

**You frequently henged into "Female form":**

**- Unlocked "**_**Uzumaki Naruko**_**" (fool people with your gender)**

**Is this the end of your road?**

**...**

Naruto blinked once. And twice. And for the third time. And it began to sink in.

He scrolled back up, then went all the way down, then back up, then down. And it finally had sunken in.

"Oh Kami, oh Kami, oh Kami, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" he shouted as he ran around the text in circles (it rotated to face him but he paid it no mind), hands waving in the air as if he were going to fly away.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he shouted once more, and came to a halt.

He played "Naruto (Classic)" for his wholesome fourteen years. And now, he was unlocking new... 'him's? 'Himselves'? Didn't matter what it was called.

The point is, why would he unlock anything if he couldn't use it! There was a Kami, or possibly several Kami for that matter, watching out for him, after all!

He finally settled and sat down. Strangely, the text floated down with him. He paid it no heed; plenty of strange things have already taken place today, and that would be the least of them.

The last line he _had_ read, though...

**...**

**Is this the end of your road?**

**[YES] - [NO!]**

Wait, was it offering him a re-try? Uh, how did they say it... a new life? Yeah, that was it.

His fingers grasped for the bracketed "No!", and the moment his fingers touched it, the list faded away like slivers of smoke. He tried to grasp at the wisps, but they were just that, wisps of smoke.

_***WHOOOOSH***_

After some sort of wind blasted both the smoke and him away, he opened his eyes to a stunningly bright light.

He heard the faint rustle of bamboo, and a faint chime in the wind. His eyes begun to adjust, and, looking around, he saw that he was, somehow, in the skies above the Naka river.

The stunning sight was just that, stunning. Below him was the forest surrounding the Naka river and nearby the Uchiha compound, and off in the distance, he heard a thousand faint whispers of villagers going by their daily business.

"What?"

He shouted on instinct as the realisation hit him - he was in mid-air!

Some words stood firm in front of him, but he was too panicked to care. He waved his arms around frantically for some time before finally noticing that, apparently, he wasn't really falling.

His feet were on solid footing. Somehow. Yeah, he was standing on top of solid air. Go figure.

That made him chuckle.

He looked up from his legs to the text he had noticed before.

Before him stood something so amazing and mind-bending that he could not help himself but voice his mind.

"What?"

**Naruto: Game of Life**

**New Game**

**Load Game**

**Options**

**Quit Game**

"Naruto... game of life? My life's a fucking _video_ game!? A video game!"

The four choices stood before him.

He would explore some, to be sure, before starting his adventure.

One, two, three, no, definitely not four. Yeah, three was the way to go.

As he touched the somehow solid air behind the word "Options", the entire list zoomed away backwards, and forward, from the same way, came staggering a new list.

**Options**

**Senses Control**

**Game Options**

**Extras**

**Cheats**

**Defaults**

**[BACK]**

His mouth curved backward. The only few chance he had at playing video games was at Shikamaru's, and the guy taught him the basics.

"So that's how it should work..."

He touched the first option, and the list zoomed away to be replaced with another.

**Senses Control**

**Blindness ... (NO)/YES**

**Deafness ... (NO)/YES**

**Tastelessness ... (NO)/YES**

**Touchlessness ... (NO)/YES**

**Scentlessness ... (NO)/YES**

**Tip: These grant you point bonuses at the score screen.**

**The options may be overridden by some characters.**

**[BACK]**

He hit the back button as quickly as he could and shivered.

This time, he went along with cheats, because that'd mean an easy way out.

**Cheats**

**Enter cheat code ... [XXXXX]**

**Enabled cheats:**

**N/A**

**[BACK]**

"That's it for cheating... I guess I must do it the hard way... Hey, what's with the 'extras' thing do then?"

He pressed it.

**Extras**

**Ages of Legends and Myths ... (NO)/YES**

**Living Cosmology Mode ... (NO)/YES**

**Demonic Infestation Mode ... (NO)/YES**

**...**

The list went on for a few more extras, dealing with some pretty unusual things. He figured this was where the hidden fun stuff of the game lay. Just for the heck of it, he turned on both 'Ages of Legends and Myths' and 'Living Cosmology Mode'. Before they were dark and gloomy, black letters, but now they simmered and shimmered in living orange ink.

The end of the list was a pretty interesting read.

**...**

**War for Dawn ... (NO)/YES**

**Tip: these modes and scenarios grant special bonuses upon playing;**

**Be cautious while playing. Mixing modes is not recommended for novices.**

**[BACK]**

He gulped upon reading the tip. 'Be cautious while playing' made a shiver run down the length of his spine. How cautions? Why?

He hit the back word, leaving the two modes on 'YES' and the letters simmering.

Hitting back once more led him to the 'title screen', so to say.

**Naruto: Game of Life**

**New Game**

**Load Game**

**Options**

**Quit Game**

He would most certainly not quit game, so he tried to load.

What came back was an ear-ripping growl that made him reconsider hitting it again.  
All that was left was 'New Game'.

He gulped, and went for the words.

Everything faded away, as if the whole world and all that was to be felt was made of smoke and was blown away.

_*Drip*_

He heard a faint sound of water dripping into a large pool.

_*Drip*_

He opened his eyes (despite not closing them), and saw a poorly-lit room with statues and statues, and rows upon rows of statues.

And one small line of white text in front of his face.

He stumbled back one step, and fell into that water, soaking his clothes.

_*Flop*_

The water droplets hit his head now. He looked up to see where they were coming from, after swiftly dodging another drop, but only saw an endless black upwards.

Below him, though, his fingers felt some sort of carving through the rather cool water.

He stood up from the water, and it was just above his ankles that way.

The carving was an edged-out swirl he wore on his clothes, the same swirl some ninjas wore on the backs or upper arms of their flak jackets.

The thing was, it too, as with almost everything else, was black and white.

Almost?

Yeah, he saw some colour back in the crowd of statues.

He gave those statues no mind now that he noticed the floating words.

**Hint: Characters are unlocked in chains!**

So, that's what those characters were! They were these statues! He went up to the first statue that he saw had colour.

It had something written above its head in striking white that only got more and more striking as Naruto closed in to it.

**Naruto (Classic)**

**Played: 1 time(s)**

"Huh, that must mean that I played it during my... uh, original life," he said.

This Naruto was a spitting image of himself, he saw, right down to the carefree foxy grin. He walked forward, yet in place at the same time.

Naruto saw that the grass under the statue moved with him.

There was a plaque beneath the statue, and Naruto touched the stone, expecting text to appear.

The text did not disappoint.

**Name: Uzumaki Naruto**

**Character: Naruto (Classic)**

**Gender: Male**

**This is the basic Naruto character. He is the model off of which the other Narutos are based.**

**(Basic Stats)**

**Strength: average**

**Intelligence: poor**

**...**

"Hey, that's me you're insulting! Watch it, textie!"

**...**

**Chakra Control: very poor**

**...**

"Didn't I just tell you something?"

.**..**

**Chakra Reseves: extremely high**

**Luck: superhuman**

**[EXPAND?]**

**...**

Naruto grinned at that. '_Of course, I'm the luckiest guy to ever be born!' _his ego shouted.

**...**

**Hints: focus on chakra manipulation and control with this character.**

**He has enormous potential left unused.**

**Play?**

**[YES] / [NO]**

Naruto had already by now decided that he had better see what else was being offered before he began his game of life anew, so he hit the no, and the words went away like smoke.

He walked around the statues, eyeing them carefully. There were many, many variations upon "classic" him, with varying degrees of deviance.

There was a "Fire-Affinity Naruto", and a "Water Affinity" one, and earth and lightning, but also the "Chakra-Incapable Naruto", which, upon being tapped, looked drained, pale and gray of hair. That one made him shudder and run away _really really_ fast.

"Goody Naruto" was next upon his tour. He wore an innocent smile and a white wardrobe.

His white t-shirt had an orange swirl on top of his chest. He walked forward with such confidence that it was hard not to stare. Even the grass around where he stepped seemed to beam every time he put his foot down.

He tapped its nameplate.

**Name: Uzumaki Naruto**

**Character: Goody Naruto**

**Gender: Male**

**...**

Naruto rolled his eyes and said, "duh."

**...**

**Good deeds come very easily to this Naruto. Wherever he walks, he spreads goodness. His is the life of being envied and hated, but his good deeds earn him as much love as hate.**

**(Basic Stats)**

**Strength: very poor**

**Intelligence: average**

**Chakra Control: average**

**Chakra Reserves: high**

**Luck: average**

**(Extras)**

_**This character is permanently innocent and cannot turn evil.**_

**Expand?**

**Hints: focus on getting friends and on chakra control with this character.**

**This is a long range attacker, but is poor on attack. He is potentially a good tank.**

**Play?**

**[YES] / [NO]**

He gave this character a "no". If he couldn't attack, of what use was he? In addition, it was not hard to guess that any amount of friends he'd earn would get him an equal amount of enemies.

Would that mean that every person he pulled to himself would push away? '_Nah, Shika's too lazy to run away from me,_' he concluded.

Some of the Narutos and Narukos were pretty scary, such as the "Prostitute Naruko" and "Prostitute _Naruto_", and the "Demented Naruto", which, when tapped, would just stand in place and giggle to himself whilst being somewhat hunched.

_'Yeah, not touching that thing.'_

He reached another one of the already coloured statues.

Above its head lay the words that made Naruto gag almost as much as the kid beneath them.  
He tapped the nameplate and almost cried blood.

**Name: Uzumaki Naruto**

**Character: Gay Naruto**

**Gender: male**

**This character has a different opinion on what is pretty from Naruto (Classic). He likes to dress up in girly dresses, and prefers guys over gals.**

**...**

Naruto dared look upon the swaggering monstrosity that was an alternate him. He shook his hips as he walked, his face was reddened with blush and lipstick and his hair had red highlights.

Worst of all, he wore a pink unzipped sweater, beneath which lay his bare chest, and a black skirt, beneath which walked two legs covered in black and white stockings, and black heels.  
Naruto ran as fast as he could, screaming from the top of his lungs "Heresy! Heresy!" and the letters faded away.

He saw a few more crazy ones before stumbling upon the two bad Narutos.

In line stood "Idiot Naruto", "Sad Naruto" and "Pathetic Naruto", all lined up.

First came the idiot. He looked the same as normal Naruto, only a bit hunched forward and his expression was dumbfounded. His nameplate was no surprise.

**Name: Uzumaki Naruto**

**Character: Idiot Naruto**

**Gender: Male**

**Intelligence is something this character will never grasp. He is so dumb that reading is beyond his grasp, as well. His survival is an amazing mystery to us all.**

**(Basic Stats)**

**Strength: high**

**Intelligence: subhuman**

**Chakra Control: subhuman**

**Chakra Reserves: high**

**Luck: extremely high**

**(Extras)**

_**This character is permanently locked below average intelligence.**_

**...**

That was all he needed.

Next came the sad one. He looked dirty, dusty, and wore a black t-shirt and orange trousers.

He walked barefoot, and barely so.

Naruto tapped his nameplate, as well.

**Name: Uzumaki Naruto**

**Character: Sad Naruto**

**Gender: Male**

**The gods haven't been kind to this character. He excels in no faculty except in having reserves of chakra, and he barely goes through life.**

**(Basic Stats)**

**Strength: poor**

**Intelligence: poor**

**Chakra Control: very poor**

**Chakra Reserves: above average**

**Luck: average**

**...**

Enough of that one, as well.

He went up to the next statue. This one was on its knees on the bare, brown ground, and there was only a rare blade of wilted grass here and there. He sobbed and sobbed, and was wearing some very dusty clothes that barely fit him. Every so often, he broke into a coughing fit, and as violent were the coughs, so violent were Naruto's feet dragging him out of there as fast as they could.

After a little while, he actually bumped into one statue as he was examining another. The stone came to life, and, for a short while, walked forth an extremely confident blond kid. He could hardly be called Naruto, with those awesome black clothes with a universal blue trim, but, apparently, he was.

What caught the regular Naruto's eye was that as the statue walked the barren earth, grass sprung up where his feet had landed.

That made the kid's jaw drop for a moment.

He tapped the nameplate.

This one's layout was different, though, likely because Naruto hadn't yet unlocked it.

**Name: Namikaze Naruto**

**...**

"What?"

**Name: Namikaze Naruto**

**...**

Yeah, he read that right. Namikaze, as in Namikaze Minato, _the_ best ninja of all time, also his idol. Wouldn't it be cool if Naruto was really his kid?

He stored that information somewhere in mind, as it was obviously important, somehow.

**Name: Namikaze Naruto**

**Character: Sorrow Incarnate**

**LOCKED**

**Required:**

**- "Die" twice in one life**

**- Become Hokage while playing Miserable Naruto**

**- Kill a precious person**

**This is one of the strongest characters, though not quite the strongest. Jagged and bitter, he almost never makes friends. Nobody ever really seems to trust him.**

**...**

Even though his stats were impressive, as Naruto noted (inhuman chakra control and ungodly reserves!), the description, and name itself, made him wary. The requirements weren't that wonderful, either.

To this statue's side stood an animated one.

This Naruto stood in place, wind rustling his hair. He kept throwing a penny in the air, and kept a permanent smirk on his face. His clothes were a pretty shiny black and orange, and, dare he say it, they looked new and clean.

He touched the nameplate.

**Name: Uzumaki Naruto**

**Character: Lucky Naruto**

**Gender: Male**

**Some men are good with coins, some with words and some were blessed by birth. This character was blessed with ungodly blind luck.**

**(Basic Stats)**

**Strength: poor**

**Intelligence: high**

**Chakra Control: high**

**Chakra Reserves: average**

**Luck: ungodly**

**(Extras)**

_**This character's personality requires him to go through life based on pure luck.**_

**Expand?**

**Hints: this character is not a skilled one; focus on diversity, not on concentration.**

**Try to tempt fate as much as possible - you might like the outcome.**

**Play?**

**[YES] / [NO]**

This character actually caused him to _hmmm_. He had no obvious deficiencies, and he was already unlocked. His stats were pretty nice, too, and Naruto saw that the statue's luck was higher than his own! Well, higher than Classic Naruto's... Yeah, let's just leave it at that.

If the character was more intelligent than Classic Naruto, would that mean that he would be smarter than he was now?

Would it last after... uh, after he died again?

He had no idea how that would work, though. It was mind-bending as is already, no need to complicate.

Would he play, now, to see how it would turn out?

Just for fun's sake, he grabbed at the yes. As before, the world faded around him. This time, he couldn't open his eyes, or close them, or anything.

He began feeling his limbs again, despite not losing feeling in them, and, slowly, he moved his arms. They were so clumsy.

It was cold. Not just cold, but so unbelievably cold he thought he'd freeze to death.

He could stretch his palm, but controlling individual fingers was very hard.

His lungs began to burn, and he felt a vacuum in his chest. He squirmed around when he was turned upside-down and hit upon the back.

All at once, his throat opened and he swallowed a mouthful of the sweetest air he had ever inhaled.

He began wailing for no reason at all.

* * *

A/N: _So, this is the opening of a saga. This story grew out of Chibi-Reaper's unfinished one. I _did _contact him, but he didn't respond.  
Special mention goes to my rather quiet beta-reader, Soprano in Shadow (TheSopranoinShadow), who helped me crank this one out._

_So, enjoy and do share what you think!_


	2. A New Beginning

For some reason he couldn't understand, Naruto woke up in what appeared to be his bed. It didn't help that he died only a moment before, or that a slew of strange and improbable events happened shortly afterwards.

Scanning his surroundings, he indeed noticed that he was home. The savory scent of stale milk and ancient, petrified ramen made him sigh with pleasure. As he sat up, Narutofelt as though a weight had lifted off of his chest, accompanied with a likely imagined *thud*.

As he tried standing up, he felt his foot make contact with _something_ and slip. He fell and hit his nose on the floor.

"Ouch!" he shouted.

Picking himself up from the floor, Naruto saw the object on which he slipped. Apparently, he now had an interesting black leather booklet, with the word "**HELP**" printed on the cover, in his possession.

He picked it up and sat on his bed.

"**HELP**" was one word he rarely used but currently really needed—considering what he'd been through.

"What's this about…" Naruto muttered under his breath as he flicked the book open. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open anything besides the Table of Contents.

There were a few interesting topics he saw, from "**Friend**s" to "**Save Game**s".

He rubbed his fingers along the first topic and saw that he could now open the booklet's interior.

_"__**Friends**__ are special characters in the Game of Life. Unlike most characters you might encounter on your journey through life, 'Friends' have special functions and a greater understanding of the world. You will encounter 'Friends' where you least, or perhaps most, expect them (More information will become available upon advancing further in the game)."_

Naruto paused for a moment, before flicking back to the booklet's Table of Contents and touched the second interesting topic. Perhaps this one would give some answers?

_"__**Save Game**__s are points in the game from where you can restart your journey if you meet an untimely end. You acquire them by saving your progress at special __**Save Point**__s in the game. These 'Save Points' are scattered around the world (More information will become available upon advancing further in the game)."_

Naruto closed the booklet.

Well, _that_ was a sort of a shock - although there was almost a positive spin to the awkward situation he was now in. On one hand, he could find these special "friends" throughout the game who could likely help him in some way. On the other, he could defy logic and go back in time if only he found those special "Save Points". Well, what was a simple defiance of logic if he could cheat death?

He sat up and put the booklet beside his alarm clock.

It was seven in the morning.

Why he awoke this early was beyond him, but that was the least of his worries.

His apartment was a bit cleaner than he remembered it being - his bed-sheets were a radiant red and the walls looked to be a freshlyapplied orange. He now had a fancy radio just next to the alarm clock, too.

Beside the window, he saw, now sat a black and white tansu of some sort, and on the tansu Ukki-kun merrily absorbed the sun-

Wait…_Ukki-kun?!_

Naruto blinked once. And twice. Yes, he _did _see Ukki-kun.

Ukki-kun was now only a fig sapling - he had two leaves and one green stem. At the time, Naruto hadn't known what kind of fig he was, but the merchant who sold him the seeds said something akin to "_Benchāminu_" and mentioned something about the seeds being from the southern lands.

That wasn't important. What _was _was both Ukki-kun's size, several times smaller than when he saw him last time, and the fact that Ukki-kun was still at home with him.

Naruto suddenly noticed how the room was somehow larger than he last saw it - the window was both higher and wider, the ceiling was farther away, and the walls even seemed to be spaced farther apart. _What was going on?_

He turned around to face the calendar; the numbers "953" were neatly printed on its top.

But...

953? He looked down at his hands.

The rather loud and apparently manic shouting that ensued surely woke up half of the village. His arms were smaller, his hands were tiny, his feet were tiny... he was all tiny!

Naruto dashed into the bathroom, now tiled with some shinier white tiles, and found that he even had to jump up in order to see himself in the mirror. He brought one of the chairs he used to eat on to the bathroom and stood on it.

The face that stared back from the other side was utterly alien to him. Well not utterly - seeing as it had blue eyes, blond hair and an expression so shocked it perfectly matched Naruto's own.

He rubbed his cheek, and the childish figure did the same. He tugged at his hair.

So did the child from the other side.

He wasn't imagining it, that much Naruto knew. His home wasn't larger, but in fact _he_ was smaller… and apparently seven years younger.

He went back to his bedroom-slash-dining room and looked around once again.

Yes, it was somewhat bigger, but it was due to his age rather than a better financial status. It was neater and prettier, though, and he was rather glad for it. Fortunately, petrified ramen still hung in the air.

It was the twenty-ninth of March. He turned back to Ukki-kun.

"Yeah, that's about how he looked..."

Naruto realized the importance of today. The twenty-ninth was the latest date on which children could apply to enroll at the academy.

He sighed, wishing he were older. All that academy business had taken a major chunk of his first life away, and now it was threatening to do so again.

He plodded around the room, exploring for new things, and settled on the tansu. It was of the white sort, but also handcrafted. The herikanagu on it was slightly imperfect, he saw, but didn't know why he knew. That meant that it too was handmade.

The white wood on it was rather impressive, though.

He opened the first of the four drawers and saw within it neatlyfolded black and orange clothes. The other three held his underwear and socks.

So many socks.

He got dressed. A black shirt and orange pants would do work well, he thought.

He grabbed the booklet and lay down on the bed. Going over the table of contents, he opened up to the section labeled "**Introduction**".

_"Welcome to Naruto: Game of Life! You have probably just awoken after having died from some reason. You are now seven years old, but that may depend on the scenario. You should get dressed and hurry up to school._

_"Current fun stuff active:__**Living Cosmology**__ and __**Ages of Legends and Myths**__. Mixing modes is __**not**__ recommended for beginners!"_

He closed the booklet and put it back beside the alarm clock. It would obviously be little help to him now, seeing as he had to discover all of that by himself.

He opened the tansu to grab his equipment and slapped his forehead as he remembered he was still seven and without a weapon within twenty feet (except maybe a chopstick… or three).

As he walked out of his large apartment through the large doors, he wondered what exactly the modes were. They couldn't really do anything bad, or so he hoped, but as he was apparently stuck inside some celestial videogame, he didn't bet too much on his hopes being true.

Per his usual routine, he first visited Ichiraku's.

The stand looked about the same as he last remembered it, except it was in slightly better shape.

He preemptively dug into his pockets and counted two thousand _ry__ō_. He walked under the covers and took his regular seat.

Before ordering his food, he was subjected to a constant barrage of "Naru-chan!" which, while heartwarming, was slightly annoying considering he was actually fourteen.

Six bowls and a round of haggling later, and Naruto continued on his path to the academy.

It looked about the same, too - the gray paint was somewhat more cracked all over, which wasn't surprising seeing as it was due to Naruto that it received a new paint job every month.

He looked up - it was indeed cracked all over. Time took its toll. Come to think of it, time would take his chance at becoming a ninja, too.

He went into the building and navigated the maze of too large corridors until he reached his classroom.

There sat an oversized Iruka and fourty-something downsized friends of his. Well, they weren't his friends now, seeing as he'd never met them in this life, but, yeah...

The moment he stepped in, the bell rang.

It was the official beginning of his academy life.

_But... wait, how could it be when it was still March?_

Iruka wasn't too terribly interested. This was the man Naruto loved so much and looked up to as a brother. A man who almost gave up his own life just to protect him.

A man who now didn't know Naruto in any way, save by reputation.

"Uh, Umino Iruka-san? I'm, uh, Uzumaki Naruto," he managed to say meekly, hoping he had made it to class on time.

Iruka eyed him one hand, he was the last of all students to arrive (yes, even Shikamaru seemed to be present) and that was dangerous, but on the other, Konoha _did _have one chronically late ninja in its ranks already.

Naruto remembered he didn't know _this _Iruka, although he knew Iruka in general. He knew that the man's parents died in the Kyūbi attack. As far as he remembered, he was part of Iruka's first generation of students, since the man had only recently graduated to Chūnin rank.

Iruka was, by all accounts, a rather reasonable person - far from judging, both in general and to Naruto. However, the blond also couldn't remember how things went the first time he enrolled in the academy.

"Uzumaki-kun, you're... almost late," the man said and sighed. "You've arrived just as we were starting."

Naruto then thought he saw a glimmer of _something not good_ in Iruka's eyes. By all accounts, Iruka was obligated to let Naruto join, and the kid knew the man used to be very weary of him for the first several months of their acquaintance. However, Iruka had also known that even though he had to let Naruto in, he could be particularly nitpicky if he so chose to be.

It appeared as though today he did.

"I'm gonna toss a coin, heads and you're in, tails and you're out. Ok?"

Naruto started panicking at Iruka's words. If the coin landed on tails, he'd probably never become a ninja, but if he didn't try, he'd still never become a ninja, so it was a lose-lose situation.

"Yeah, that's ok."

Iruka dug out a ten_ryō_ coin out of his pocket and tossed it upwards. Iruka caught it and eyed the results before tossing it again. Naruto felt a bubble of anger rise in his chest. _How was that fair?_

"Hey, that's cheating!" the blond shouted, but the man ignored him and tossed the coin in the air again. When it landed, he seemed surprised for a moment.

"Huh..."

He tossed it again, and again, and again, before sighing for one final time.

"Yeah, I guess you're in. I can't believe it..."

Naruto didn't want to argue with the ruling that he was right, and just went to his seat with a simple, "Hell yeah!" He took his seat beside an eerily familiar hedgehog-haired kid who was soundly asleep.

Iruka's first class was an introduction into the world of ninja; an explanation of all the dangers that such a life might and would bring; a brief overview of the brief history of Konoha; and finally, the swearing of oaths.

All of the children, save a few from the clans and one from the future, listened to Iruka as if he were of a divine nature and absorbed all the stories of his not-so-long life as though they were sponges filling up with water.

Naruto decided it was best to join his newfound friend in his activities and lay his head down on the desk and closed his eyes.

He thought about how cool it would be for him to become Hokage, fighting any enemy and protecting everyone, while wearing that cool hat and a cloak that had written on it some witty statement and-

He jumped up as the bell rang, slightly startled and drowsy. Shikamaru arose with far less haste.

"That's it for today, kids. You have fourty-five minutes to eat and generally do... whatever it is you do, and after that you should join Mizuki in the training grounds behind the academy," Iruka said to his class as they left. He leaned back in his chair and muttered something sounding creepily similar to "lucky brat" when Naruto passed him by.

The blond kid decided to follow Shikamaru when the lunch break began.

"Hey, we met in class, remember?" Naruto began.

Shikamaru looked at him with suspicion. Mouthing a "_mendokusē_", he nodded at the inquiry.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, 'ttebayo!"

Shikamaru didn't change his facial expression - he was as stiff and lazy with six or seven or however old he was as he was with fourteen years: too lazy to move a facial muscle.

"I'm Nara Shikamaru," he said and with that decided their conversation was over. Naruto followed as the boy walked over to a clearing on the academy's grounds and saw him lie down on the grass. After a moment, Naruto did the same.

The two watched the sky for some time before Naruto finally started to get fidgety.

"What are we doing?"

"I'm watching the clouds. What about you?" the boy deadpanned.

"Yeah, I guess I am too," Naruto responded.

He tried looking at the clouds and discerning the meaning behind them, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't find anything to it.

"Why are we watching the clouds?" he asked.

Shikamaru half-sighed, half-whispered something and pointed at a formation of clouds to their right.

"See that cluster there?"

Naruto nodded.

"There are four of those there, then eight there," he said as he drew his finger across the sky towards the left until he reached the area in front of himself.

He pointed at their left now.

"You see that cluster there? There's nine here, and ten further along to the right."

"Oh, right," Naruto said.

He looked at the sky again and tried to focus on the clusters of clouds Shika pointed out to him.

Four, eight, nine and ten.

He squinted.

"I don't get it."

Shikamaru sighed again - people seemed to do that in Naruto's presence quite a bit,

"For all your smart looks you're somewhat dense. Four, eight, nine, ten; this is a pattern my father told me was one of the keys to some great secret. He said, 'the ruling king is armoured in head to toe in brilliant flame; he is redeemed by each act he undertakes, his death is only a diagram back to the waking world'. But I don't really understand any of it. All I know is that I keep finding this pattern everywhere, for some unknown reason."

Naruto scratched his head. Yeah, he couldn't have guessed, but now that Shikamaru explained it to him, he felt somewhat better.

"Yeah, I think I get what you mean. I mean, I don't understand anything of what your father said or that, but... yeah, thanks."

"You're welcome," Shikamaru said and tuned back in with his pattern. Naruto joined him happily this time.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're too smart for your own good?" Naruto jokingly asked his new friend.

"Did anyone ever tell you you talk too much?"

They both laughed and went back to gazing at the clouds. Glancing back at the academy, Naruto saw Iruka face-palm and walk into the building upon seeing them. Apparently, Iruka knew more of Shikamaru than Naruto.

The bell rang to signify the end of their small lunch break (during which they didn't eat, but that didn't matter) and the two boys sat up and walked over to the mass of children assembled around a particular white-haired man.

Mizuki.

Yeah, the same Mizuki who wanted Naruto dead for some of his opaque goals.

Naruto felt a bubbling rage rise up from within him and he mugged Sasuke in front of him for several senbon before instinctively throwing them at Mizuki, who was almost caught off-guard.

Almost. The white-haired man deftly deflected the boy's senbon with his own.

"Pointy needles are popular this year, I've noticed, " he said before laughing.

Everybody, save a notable few, turned around to stare Naruto down.

"If I didn't know we were going to be practicing weapons now, I'd guess you just tried to kill me, kit," he said. "Come on, kids, brighten up! Nothing like a few surprises to keep you shinobi on your toes, right?"

A few laughs were heard coming from the group and the overall atmosphere seemed to improve.

Over the course of the next hour and a half, Naruto found himself cloudgazing once more with Shikamaru.

"Why'd you do that?" the darker-haired boy asked.

Naruto groaned. "I can't explain it to you… you'll think I'm crazy or something."

Shikamaru mulled that over for a few moments before settling for a simple "ok".

"What?"

"I said 'ok'. You have your reasons for doing the things you do. I won't prod. Too troublesome."

"Oh... Thanks, I guess."

Shikamaru merely nodded.

Naruto counted the clouds. Ten, nine, eight, four. The same pattern as before except in reverse.

He took note of it. The pattern meant something. It certainly wasn't accidental, seeing as he couldn't say anything within this cosmic videogame he was stuck in could be. Maybe Shikaku and Shikamaru _were_ onto something.

He glanced over at Mizuki, who was also juggling between glancing at him and teaching the kids what each weapon was. The kids slacking off, Naruto saw, were all clan children, who had probably all learned how to identify weapons at a younger age. Sasuke, of course, was an exception to the slacker rule, though, and so was that Shino guy.

Naruto felt on edge being that close to Mizuki, and it didn't help that his teenager's intuition was acting up.

When classes finally ended, he went home but not before stopping to buy a notebook and pen from a scribe supply store.

He unlocked the doors of his apartment, carefully watching if anyone was around.

Having heated up a can of instantramen, Naruto sat down on his bed with the black booklet and notebook in hand.

He wrote the sequence "4-8-9-10" down before opening the booklet on **"Friends"** again.

_"__**Friend**__s are special characters in the Game of Life. Unlike most characters you might encounter on your journey through life, Friends have special functions and a greater understanding of the world. Each friend has a particular part of the story to share with you, or maybe a specific fragment of information that may be of use. Not all Friends are there to help you, and many will find delight in the opportunity to stab you in the back (More information will become available upon advancing further in the game)."_

The text had changed.

Naruto rubbed his eyes before standing up and going to check the lock on his door.

It hasn't been tampered with. He checked all his windows as well, but nothing had been touched. He made his way back to his bed, seeing as this change seemed to be another game mechanic.

He looked at the Table of Contents again and sighed. He couldn't find anything interesting.

He opened his notebook and began writing.

_"Monday, somewhere around April 1st, 953 (?)—Today wasn't a fun day. Having ideas about the future and knowing how peoples' actions will affect it isn't good for sanity, not unlike much of the game."_

With that, Naruto closed the book and promptly threw it across the room as he was startled by the word "**ARTEFACT**" now neatly printed on the front cover of the booklet. He shrugged once he realised what had happened and proceeded to turn off all the lights in the room before laying down.


End file.
